In a country where more than 10 million households have backyard chickens, it’s no surprise that poultry equipment supplier Hatching Time has seen an explosion of growth in just a few short years.
The Delaware-based company was founded in 2019 when cofounders Yağız Aksu and Ryan Flanagan joined forces to bring to market innovative backyard poultry equipment manufactured by Aksu’s family.
At the time, Flanagan was a serial entrepreneur with a background in marketing and zero chicken experience. He got into the industry after learning from Aksu that millions of at-home farmers in the U.S. could benefit from easy-to-clean and longer-lasting alternatives to traditional chicken-raising equipment that are susceptible to rot and rust.
Flanagan quickly realized the pair’s business opportunity. After the startup’s first few sales in 2019, he said he quit his full-time job, “dove headfirst into it and never looked back.” From 2019 to 2022, the company saw sales grow to more than $4 million, an increase of 3,274%, landing them a highly coveted spot among the top 200 in Inc.’s 2023 list of “Fastest Growing Private Companies in the U.S.”
Today, Hatching Time is continuing rapid growth, with millions of dollars in annual revenue, supported by Amazon’s programs and tools.
Hatching Time offers an innovative solution for both novice and expert poultry enthusiasts: a flagship product line of cabinet incubators made from cutting-edge, decay-resistant plastic. Accompanying products provide backyard flock owners with chick-raising equipment for every life stage, from egg incubators for hatching to chick brooders and coops.
The company began selling on their own direct-to-consumer website and eBay in 2019. In mid-2022 they turned to Amazon due to its “global audience and the brand’s trusted reputation.”
Their returns with Amazon were quick and dramatic, netting Hatching Time more than $1 million in sales in the first year alone.
“As soon as we were able to get [our products] in the Amazon store, it opened the floodgates of visibility for people to see the equipment and we started to see a lot of orders come in,” Flanagan said
Flanagan said Hatching Time used customer insights to hone their Amazon Ads campaigns for new customers, helping to grow their consumer base. And when it came time to finance their expansion to 12 employees, Hatching Time worked with Amazon Lending to secure funding. Flanagan said choosing Amazon Lending was easy because it offered convenient financing options that met his business goals. He explained, “The amazing part of it was how simple the application process was. Whereas, with other lenders, it went on for weeks; with Amazon, it took just a couple of days to get approval for the lending, followed by immediate access to the actual capital.”
The capital Flanagan secures through Amazon’s financing solutions constitutes a steady and solid funding source for Hatching Time year over year, which Flanagan uses to purchase inventory.
“Having access to different flexible financing solutions from third-party lenders who work with Amazon has significantly helped Hatching Time’s ability to market our products and secure inventory,” he said.
Flanagan has big expectations for Hatching Time’s future, with a number of products in the research and development stages, all based on customer feedback. “That’s how you grow,” Flanagan explained. “We’re listening. We’re innovating. That’s what will skyrocket us to the next level: being able to provide customers with exactly what they need.”
Flanagan intends for Hatching Time to become a household name in the poultry industry, with a bright future ahead—and he can’t imagine doing so without Amazon as a partner. He hopes to reach more customers by eventually selling globally, beyond the company’s existing customer base in the U.S. and Canada.
In 2024, the company is aiming for a 30% increase in U.S. sales and 150% increase in international sales, Flanagan said. “We’re definitely going to be the ‘one-stop poultry shop’ globally for everything you could possibly need to raise birds,” Flanagan said.